Hobby punk is the pre-digital technology of the second World War continuing into hobby products of the leisure time fifties. Hobby punk evokes the moment before technology became invisible, miniaturized into integrated circuits. In hobby punk we see individual transistors and capacitors soldered onto breadboards. It is the era of technology that existed before computer-aided design, where technology was defined by primitive, easy-to-create shapes and held together with screws, braces and solder. In the place of computer-defined curves we find hammered out-sheet metal, wood and wire. Hobby punk speaks to a particular scale and mode of production. It refers to the kind of thing that someone could make in their garage given the time and inclination using ordinary hand tools and common equipment. It is the proto-garage aesthetic, things that look barely held together because they exist somewhere between prototype and production model. Hobby punk is partially repurposed, partially customized bricolage in motion. It is covered with handwritten notations, worn, and leaks oil. Noise film is a hobby punk movie.
From the Udvar-Hazy Space & Air museum—
Target drone used for military exercises.
Hand-written notations on early computer system.
Interior of early satellite.
Exterior of the same satellite with solar panels.
Early 128k computer painted mint green.
Early prototype of one-person helicopter.
Late WWII German surface-air missle with wood fins.
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